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Sunday, September 15, 2013

The 2013 IAAF Diamond League reached its conclusion last week in Brussels with the crowning of 16 Diamond Race winners, following the first 16 athletes who received their Diamond Trophies in Zurich one week prior.
The calendar dates for next year’s IAAF Diamond League have already been approved*, but here we highlight some of the statistics from the 2013 Diamond League season.
Among the winners last week in the Belgian capital were Kenyan steeplechaser Milcah Chemos and French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, who both made history by becoming the first athletes to win four successive Diamond Race titles.
Since the Diamond League began in 2010, there have been no other overall winners of the women’s 3000m Steeplechase and men’s Pole Vault as Chemos and Lavillenie have dominated their respective events.
Lavillenie now ties New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams for the most Diamond League wins since 2010, both athletes having recorded 17 victories across the four-year history of the series. Adams still has the highest points total though with 94 compared to Lavillenie’s 86.
Two athletes this year won all seven meetings in the Diamond Race for their events.
Czech 400m hurdler Zuzana Hejnova and Croatian discus thrower Sandra Perkovic achieved a ‘perfect seven’ across the 14-meeting series. In the men’s events, the most consistent performers were Ukrainian high jumper Bohdan Bondarenko and US shot putter Ryan Whiting, who won five meetings each, despite having never won at a Diamond League meeting before this year.
Aside from Perkovic and Hejnova, other athletes who went unbeaten in the 2013 Diamond League series include Adams in the Shot (5 meets), Colombian triple jumper Caterine Ibarguen (6), US sprint hurdler Dawn Harper-Nelson (5) and Russian high jumper Svetlana Shkolina (4).
Naturally, Hejnova and Perkovic scored the most points within an individual event with 32 points across the whole season. But the top scorer overall was Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who notched up 35 points throughout the season.
Fraser-Pryce tied with Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare for the highest number of appearances in Diamond Race events this year with 10 each. Both athletes finished in the top three in nine of those competitions; the most of any athlete in the world this year.
In single disciplines, US triple jumper Christian Taylor, Botswana’s 400m runner Amantle Montsho and German javelin thrower Christina Obergfoll joined Hejnova and Perkovic as athletes who finished in the top three at all seven Diamond Race competitions this season.
As yet, no one has won at all 14 meetings in a Diamond Race event, but Perkovic is closest to achieving that, having won at all of the meetings apart from Paris and London since 2010.
The most prolific Diamond League performer is Kenyan middle-distance runner Asbel Kiprop, who has made 29 appearances in Diamond Race events since 2010. In a single discipline, Montsho boasts the most appearances with 27.
This year Diamond League records were set in seven individual events – men’s 400m, 1500m, High Jump, Pole Vault, and the women’s 400m, Pole Vault and Long jump.
2013 Diamond Race winners
MEN
100m – Justin Gatlin (USA)
200m – Warren Weir (JAM)
400m – LaShawn Merritt (USA)
800m – Mohammed Aman (ETH)
1500m – Ayanleh Souleiman (DJI)
5000m – Yenew Alamirew (ETH)
3000m Steeplechase – Conseslus Kipruto (KEN)
110m Hurdles – David Oliver (USA)
400m Hurdles – Javier Culson (PUR)
High Jump – Bohdan Bondarenko (UKR)
Pole Vault – Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)
Long Jump – Aleksandr Menkov (RUS)
Triple Jump – Christian Taylor (USA)
Shot Put – Ryan Whiting (USA)
Discus – Gerd Kanter (EST)
Javelin – Vitezslav Vesely (CZE)
WOMEN
100m – Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM)
200m – Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM)
400m – Amantle Montsho (BOT)
800m – Eunice Sum (KEN)
1500m – Abeba Aregawi (SWE)
5000m – Meseret Defar (ETH)
3000m Steeplechase – Milcah Chemos (KEN)
100m Hurdles – Dawn Harper-Nelson (USA)
400m Hurdles – Zuzana Hejnova
High Jump – Svetlana Shkolina (RUS)
Pole Vault – Yarisley Silva (CUB)
Long Jump – Shara Proctor (GBR)
Triple Jump – Caterine Ibarguen (COL)
Shot Put – Valerie Adams (NZL)
Discus – Sandra Perkovic (CRO)
Javelin – Christina Obergfoll (GER)
IAAF